DWIGHT
BRAXTON, who changed his legal name to DWIGHT MUHAMMED QAWI after winning
the WBC Light Heavyweight Title in December of 1981, was also a world
champion at the Cruiserwight class. He fought against many notable
fighters, includiung Mike "The Jewish Bomber" Rossman, Matthew
Saad Muhammed, Leon Spinks, Evander Holyfield, and George Foreman.

If
only Dwight Qawi could have dealt with his problems outside of the ring
the way dealt with his challenges inside the ring, there's no telling
the impact he could have had in the light heavyweight and cruiserweight
divisions. Because of substance abuse, Qawi unraveled towards the end of
his career.

It is also because of his past substance abuse problem that he is a
champion of more importance, making an impact on the lives of several
at-risk youths as a counselor at Lighthouse, a rehabilitation facility
in Mays Landing, New Jersey.

Qawi, born Dwight Braxton on January 5, 1953, learned how to handle
himself on the tough streets of Camden, N.J., where he was convicted of
armed robbery at age 19. He spent more than five years in prison where
he learned to meld his street fighting background with elements of the
Sweet Science.

Inside prison, a fellow inmate named Malcolm Lewis taught him how to use
his feet, how to move and have a good center of balance, something that
proved to be very valuable to the 5-foot-6 and a half-inch brawler who
came to be known as the "Camden Buzzsaw."

"I learned how to fight on the streets," Qawi told
MaxBoxing.com from his home in Somers Point, N.J. "I was a street
fighter and boxing was always plan C for me when I got out of
prison."

Qawi was 25 when he was released and with no amateur experience, he
figured going to trade school was his best option. That was until fate
stepped in and a man named Ike Hammonds, who saw Qawi bust people up in
the streets, approached him shortly after he was released from prison.

"I was walking down the street and this guy who seen my work on the
street drove by," Qawi said. "He jumped out of his car and
told me I'd be a champion."

Hammonds bought Qawi his first pair of trunks, hand wraps and other
equipment, and brought him to Joe Frazier's gym in Philadelphia. After
only a month of working out, he had his first professional bout in 1978.
Three years later he was on the threshold of greatness when he took on
Matthew Saad Muhammad for the WBC light heavyweight championship.

He would win a 10-round TKO over Muhammad and convert to Islam. He would
win the rematch a year later, this time via sixth round TKO.

While he considers his second fight with Muhammad his best fight he said
the most intriguing round of career came in his defense against Eddie
Davis.

In the tenth round Davis made a go at Qawi, forcing the champion to
reassess his game plan. He knew in order to be successful, he'd have to
use his stellar body punches to regain control of the bout.

"I stayed alive in that round and I had to put him on a
leash," Qawi said. "I went to the body and made him follow me
around the ring instead of me following him."

He would go on to lose his belt to Michael Spinks in 1983 and moved to
cruiserweight, where he defeated Piet Crous for the WBA version of the
title in '85. Evander Holyfield then came along and took the title with
a classic 15-round slugfest one year later that the future undisputed
heavyweight champ won by split decision. Holyfield dispatched Qawi in
four rounds in the rematch.

Qawi would eventually amass a pro record of 41-11-1 with 25 KOs,
fighting until 1998.

After going into an alcohol-rehabilitation program in 1990, Qawi has
been sober ever since and now his passion is helping troubled youths at
Lighthouse. He said many of the kids that come to the center are 14 or
15 years old, some started messing around with drugs like Marijuana by
the time they were six.

"I don't want these kids to be dependent on me, I want them to be
independent," Qawi said. "Addiction has an impending doom
affect. When you use, you are out of control."

Qawi said that although the kids are intrigued with the fact that he is
an ex-world champion, they are more interested in the fact that he has
been in their shoes and he can personalize his counsel to their
experiences.

"They know that everything is for real because I am one of
them," he said. "Rehabilitation is like going to train for a
fight. You've got to get yourself ready, because you are training for
the first day of the rest of your life."

The experience as a counselor has helped Qawi find meaning in his life
and it has helped him in his day-to-day struggles with sobriety. He said
that part of addiction is medicating the struggles of everyday life so
you don't feel disappointment.

"I have to be a mirror to them," Qawi said. "This is not
about money or a championship belt. Teaching always benefits the teacher
and I'm stronger and better because of it."

Camden
Courier-Post - Sunday June 15, 2003

Qawi Passes Test In Ring and Life

Camden boxer hurdles
stormy career, and battle with drugs, booze

By DON BENEVENTO,
Courier-Post Staff

There
was a time when Dwight Muhammad Qawi was considered one of the meanest,
hardest hitting, most determined, straight-ahead boxers ever to enter
the ring.

"He
was a brawler more than anything else," said Qawi's longtime
trainer Wesley Mouzon. "He wasn't really a boxer, because he was
too short. They said he was 5-foot-7, but he was really 5-6 1/2. But
what he did was, he'd put a lot of pressure on you. He'd always have you
backing up. He had a heck of a lot of success at what he did."

All
Qawi did was win and defend world championships in two weight classes,
the 175-pound World Boxing Council Light Heavyweight crown and the
190-pound World Boxing Association Cruiserweight title.

He
did so while fighting some of the best known boxers of the 1980s,
including Evander Holyfield, George Foreman, the Spinks brothers -
Michael and Leon - and his local rival, former WBA light-heavyweight
champion Mike Rossman, known then as Turnersville's "Jewish
Bomber."

Carrying
his own nickname, "The Camden Buzzsaw," Qawi compiled a record
of 41-11-1 with 25 knockouts.

Talk
to the 50-year-old Qawi today, however, and he will tell you his biggest
victory came over a battle with drugs and alcohol. For the past five
years, he's been working as a counselor at The Lighthouse, a
rehabilitation center located in Mays Landing where he is now trying to
help others who face similar problems he had.

He
no longer wants to be known as a brawler or a boxer. He is proud of his
years in the ring, but he said times have changed.

"That
was all in the past," he said. "This isn't 1981. Now I'm a
nice guy."

At
The Lighthouse, Qawi works with adults and teenagers who are battling
their own demons. His supervisors say he has a unique ability to connect
with troubled people.

"He
pours his heart and soul into his work," said Janet Ricci, the
director of adult and patient services at The Lighthouse. "He's a
very strong patient advocate. He uses his own life experiences to reach
out to addicts and empower them to lead productive lives."

Jude
Lackman, who works with adolescents at The Lighthouse, said that Qawi
also has the ability to reach out to the younger patients as well as he
does with adults.

"He's
invaluable in so many ways," she said. "He works physically,
culturally and emotionally to broaden the scope of the program for the
children. We have kids here who have big problems, but Dwight has taken
the time to make a real commitment to their personal growth, which is
the cornerstone of our field."

Life
strife

Life
has never been easy for Qawi, who began his career under his given name,
Dwight Braxton. He admits to getting into trouble as a youngster and
spent time in prison before he began his career as a boxer by fighting
Leonard Langley to a draw on April 19, 1978 in Washington, D.C.

"I
got caught up in my foolishness and I had to face the
consequences," said Qawi. "One day I said to myself I had to
stop the foolishness. I just woke up."

Qawi
recalled that boxing was not his first choice when it came to turning
around his life.

"I
had an A, B and C plan and boxing was my C-plan," he said, noting
that he was encouraged at the time by friend, Ike Hamilton.

"Ike
Hamilton was the first one to say, `this guy can box.' So they put me in
the gym and I sparred with some of the great middleweights around here
like Bennie Briscoe, Bobby Watts and Willie Monroe. I worked hard and I
did pretty good against them, and that was how I got started. I think
I'm one of the only boxers to win a championship without having an
amateur career."

But
Qawi did not get off to a great start to his professional career. After
three fights, his record was 1-1-1. He was not discouraged, however, and
he then went on a streak of 18 straight victories, including the one
over Rossman. In one of his first big fights, Qawi stopped Rossman in
seven rounds on May 31, 1981 in Atlantic City.

"The
night he fought Rossman, he came off the stool and went right after him
from the first minute," said boxing historian Ralph Citro, who was
working in Rossman's corner as a cutman that night. "He had very
fast hands and he was a good technician. Along with Joe Walcott, he was
one of the better boxers to come out of this area."

The
victory over Rossman helped set up Qawi's first title fight, which came
on Dec. 19, 1981 when he defeated local legend Matthew Saad Muhammad
with a 10th-round TKO in Atlantic City to win the WBC Light Heavyweight
Title.

Pitfalls
of celebrity

With
his title in hand, Qawi suddenly found that he was a celebrity. As much
as he enjoyed the attention, it also set him off on a bad course that
eventually would lead to a life that was dominated by drinking.

"When
I was on top, I used to drink to celebrate," he said. "Then
later, I would drink to get over the pain of the losses."

Qawi
also underwent some other problems. He and his wife divorced, and he ran
into some financial difficulties as well. But it was during this time
that Qawi also engaged in one of his most memorable fights.

On
Aug. 7, 1982, he successfully defended his WBC Light Heavyweight Title
with a six-round TKO over Saad Muhammad in the Spectrum, but he
sustained his first significant loss when he turned the title over to
Michael Spinks by losing a 15-round decision on March 18, 1983.

Qawi
said he was injured when he fought Spinks. He had a broken nose and a
deviated septum, a fact that was disclosed in an article in Sports
Illustrated, which he felt that gave Spinks an edge in the fight.

"I
was conscious of getting hit in the nose the whole time," Qawi
said. "I couldn't fight like I normally do. I was hesitant. I would
have fought better if I had time to heal, but there was a lot of money
involved and I didn't want to put off the fight."

It
would be another two-plus years before Qawi would get another title
shot. But he made the most of if by defeating Piet Crous on July 27,
1985 in Sun City, South Africa to win the newly created WBA
Cruiserweight Title.

He
defended that crown on March 22, 1986 with a sixth-round TKO over Leon
Spinks in Reno, Nev., and then he engaged in the first of two memorable
bouts with the up-and-coming Holyfield.

The
two met for the cruiserweight title on July 12, 1986 in Holyfield's
hometown of Atlanta. At the time, Holyfield had only taken part in 10
professional fights, but he was an Olympic champion and Qawi felt that
the fight was won on reputation more than what happened in the ring.
Qawi lost a split decision that still annoys Mouzon.

"It
was a very good fight," the ex-trainer said. "I thought Dwight
won it, but they didn't give it to him. It was a tough loss."

On
Dec. 5, 1987 Holyfield came to Atlantic City to face Qawi in a rematch.
This time, Holyfield scored a fourth-round knockout. By then, Qawi said
he could feel his life slipping out of control.

"I
was under a lot of stress," he said. "I never knew it would
get that bad. I was on a spiral going downhill. I didn't want to drink
like I was, but it was part of the addiction."

He
next tried to move up to the heavyweight division, and he met Foreman on
March 19, 1988 in Las Vegas. But it proved to be a mistake.

"I
wasn't ready to fight," Qawi said. "By then I was drinking
heavily. I was buying a fifth of whiskey a day. Sometimes I would pour
some of it out, but I was drinking a lot."

Foreman
stopped Qawi in the seventh round, and Qawi admitted that he did not
fight his best.

"By
then, I was thinking crazy," he said. "I wasn't thinking
strategically. I wasn't doing what I had to do to win."

Qawi
would fight for the world title only one more time. He lost a 12-round
decision to Robert Daniels on Nov. 27, 1989 in Nogent, France. He tried
to work his way back up in the rankings over the next couple years, but
his lifestyle began to take its toll.

He
retired from the ring in 1992 to become a boxing consultant, but then -
as many boxers will - he returned to the ring to fight a couple of more
times, never reaching the heights of the early part of his career. In
his final bout, he lost an eight-round decision to Tony LoRosa on Nov.
25, 1998.

"It
was difficult to let boxing go," he said. "It was like another
addiction. I guess you can say I stayed past my dream."

It
was at that point that Qawi knew he had to do something that would not
only save his own life, but possibly save someone elses.

Helping
others

Qawi
joined the staff at The Lighthouse soon after the conclusion of his
boxing career in 1998. He came aboard as one who knew first-hand of the
effort it takes to overcome addictions to drugs and alcohol,

"The
compulsion, the addiction is so powerful," he said, "that life
becomes unnatural."

Qawi
credits his recovery to a rebirth in his own spirituality.

"This
was one fight where I had to surrender in order to win," he said.
"I believe God led me to my recovery. He made me realize I didn't
have to have a million to feel like a million."

Now
he tries to send that message to others who need help.

The
father of two sons, Thomas, 17, and Dwight, 19, Qawi now spends most of
his time with his family and working with those who need help at The
Lighthouse.

He
has become, as he said, a nice guy, and something more.

"He's
turned his focus from a physical to a mental to a spiritual one,"
Lackman said. "I can't say enough about what he has meant to us as
a person."

Foreman vs. Qawi Ticket

Click
on Image to Enlarge

Click
on Image to Enlarge

A
few weeks before the Tommy Farr fight, Jim Braddock took some time off
to appear on the radio program Gangbusters, where he narrated The
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